Kimbo Slice

“You’re about to go worldwide on CBS, Stockton! Make some noise! You want everyone to know what Stockton is all about!”

The public-address announcer at the Stockton Arena didn’t have to work very hard to whip the nearly sold-out crowd into a frenzy on Saturday. The pugnacious practitioners of that increasingly popular sport known as mixed martial arts had come to their town for CBS’s Saturday Fight Night. So not only were they going to be treated to an electrifying evening of caged violence, they were going to get some rare prime-time television exposure.

When I was growing up in Stockton, the place was known more as a great boxing town. It was even immortalized in a novel and a John Huston movie called “Fat City.” But these days, boxing is so old-school. Young fans crave the all-out intensity and near street-brawl spirit of mixed martial arts.